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On Our Radar: Uncovering the story of the Wipers Times with Visit Flanders

There are times when I’m up against it with deadlines here at TTG, but that’s nothing compared with the stresses of producing a 20-page newspaper in a place nicknamed Hellfire Corner under a constant threat of bombardment

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Menin-Gate.jpg
Menin-Gate.jpg

I had a fascinating glimpse into what it was like to produce a newspaper on the frontline of the First World War at an event hosted by Visit Flanders in London last week to commemorate the 100th anniversary of The Wipers Times.

 

The story goes that Captain Frederick J Roberts and a party of men from the 12th Battalion Sherwood Foresters found a printing press in the rubble of Ypres. One of their party, a printer in civilian life, made it work, and they created a trench newspaper, edited by Captain Roberts. It was a satirical no-holds-barred view of life at the front, littered with in-jokes about shelling, sex, alcohol and rats, and it played an important role in raising morale among troops.

 

To commemorate the centenary Visit Flanders has made a series of short films, bringing to life the characters and places linked to The Wipers Times (youtube.com/ visitflanders). The films are presented by Private Eye editor Ian Hislop, who penned a 2013 BBC dramatisation about The Wipers Times, and Nick Roberts, the grandson of Captain Fred Roberts. On location in Ypres, they feature local guide Simon Louagie, who has curated his own special tour called “Walk in the Footsteps of Captain Fred Roberts”. His tour visits the Menin Gate (pictured above), the Clothhall and Ramparts in Ypres, the Hooge Crater Museum and some of the final resting places of the Sherwood Foresters.

 

After the original printing workshop was shelled, Capt Roberts scrounged another printing press and hid it in the cellars of the Ypres Ramparts. Today the cellar houses the Kazematten Brewery, which produces a Wipers Times beer, and this is a fitting place to end the tour.

 

Nick Roberts was present at the Visit Flanders event, and his happy memories of his “Pops” who had a twinkle in his eye were tinged with regret that he didn’t ask more about his Great War exploits while he had the chance. The centenary project with Visit Flanders had given him a chance to reconnect with his grandfather’s achievements.

 

He explained: “When I visited the cellar in the ramparts where the printing press was hidden, it gave me a tingle up my spine to look at the same ceiling my grandfather would have looked at 100 years before.”

 

And he had good reason to feel proud, with an epitaph like this from Hislop about his grandfather: “The black humour of The Wipers Timers produced in a time of such horror shows the triumph of the human spirit.”

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